Coronavirus: North West to beat Gauteng and KZN in race to stage PSL matches?

The North West province appears to be leading the race to stage the remaining matches of the 2019/20 PSL season, according to Sport24. 

The publication reports that the province's Department of Sport, Arts and Culture held an urgent meeting with various stakeholders on Friday to make final touch-ups for Sun City and Royal Bafokeng Stadium to be ready to host the matches.  

According to Sport24, representatives from the Rustenburg local municipality and the South African Football Association (Safa) were present at the meeting. 

The PSL together with Safa have proposed that the season be completed in a biological-safe environment to curb the spread of the coronavirus. 

KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are the other two provinces who put their names forward to stage the games. 

However, the abovementioned provinces have a high number of confirmed positive cases compared to North West - one of the three conditions the PSL and government will consider before making a final decision. 

Furthermore, Sport24 revealed some of the reasons that were put forward for staging the games in the meeting, including but not limited to the availability of infrastructure and capacity requirements, options available as quarantine sites for potential outbreaks as well as having enough facilities to cover the entire ecosystem of players, officials and broadcasters. 

Both Sun City and Royal Marang hotel have been proposed to host the 32 teams.  

Four stadiums were put forward as possible venues to stage the official games and they are Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace, Moruleng Stadium, Olympia Park and Royal Marang Practice Fields. 

Teams will be allocated time slots for training and recuperation but the practice fields at Royal Marang are likely to stage NFD matches.  

The South African government has already given the go-ahead for teams to train Level 3 of the lockdown but the PSL will have the final say. 

Cape Town City became the first team to return to the training grounds this week while Kaizer Chiefs and Chippa United are among those expected to get going next week. 

The only thing left for the PSL to do is to make a decision on the exact date for the resumption of the season. 

The league aims to complete the season by August 31 the latest, according to Dr Irvin Khoza.  

There are 54 PSL matches to play, 44 NFD games and three Nedbank Cup matches left before the current campaign can officially be declared over.